Apple has reportedly placed orders for around 10 million iPad mini tablets according to The Wall Street Journal. The information on the huge order quantity number comes from various Apple supply chain vendors in the Asia region who claim to have received orders specifically for the iPad mini.

Some component suppliers to Apple in Asia say they have received orders to make more than 10 million units of the smaller tablets in the fourth quarter. That is roughly double the order that were placed for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets in the same quarter, these suppliers say. The figure indicates that Apple believes demand for the product will be strong, despite stiff competition in the market. Apple hasn’t responded to requests for comment on the smaller tablet dubbed by the industry as the iPad mini.

Apple already owns the majority of the tablet space with the current iPad but there is definitely a small chunk of that market looking for a slightly smaller or cheaper tablet; especially if it comes with all the features of the current iPad. For some buyers, the current entry price point for an iPad of around $500 is a little too high, for others it is the 9.7-inch size which puts them off. If Apple addresses both of these issues with the iPad mini then it could well be game over for everyone else.

The rumor mill has certainly gone a little quiet regarding the iPad mini over the past few weeks however we expect that to start building again very soon. We have already heard that the iPad mini is in mass production from another source and we expect it to be formally announced sometime this month.

I know it's Apple, but if all the rumors are true with non-retina, ~8", 4:3 aspect, etc, I'm still surprised at those numbers. I'm wondering if they are planning a cut-throat price to go head to head with Amazon and Google?

Should be interesting. After all I never saw the appeal in the original iPad and look what they did with that.

I would love to see it at that price point also but, it would not fit into the iPod Touch pricing. It doesn’t seem logical to price an iPad Mini for less than the entry point of an iPod Touch. But… it is NOT Apple’s style to release a stripped down version of any product just to bring the price down. It will be a dark day for Apple to do something like that.

The new iPod Touch starts at $299 with 32GB and the iPhone's display. If this has 8GB at the entry level, and a non-retina display, it can have the A5 internals and I think it could be $249. It could even start at $279. I am pretty sure Apple has used $...79 prices before. Anyway, if what has been on the web is true, this is supposed to be a thin and light device. I don't know if they can get the GPU power and the requisite battery required to drive a Retina display that size in a really thin and light form factor. Apple has a priority in maintaining battery life and touch performance.

When was the last time you saw Apple put out a budget device like that? Apple is the premium brand and there is no way they're changing that now. This thing is going to be $350 at the very least, probably $399.

Apple charges a rather consistent margin over the cost of components. ~25% to ~%40. Usually, they are at the lower end of the spectrum for the cheaper products and at the higher end for, well, the iPhone. If the components are similar to the ones being rumoured, then $399 would be well over 100% mark up. That is not going to happen. The most likely price will be $299. But, I personally hope for $249.

You mean it's not like apple to charge aggressive prices. Apple only sells it products at full retail markup. Other companies offer more bang for the buck because they don't charge the margins that Apple does. Not saying it hasn't been good for them, but the only Apple product I'll buy is the phone which is discounted by the carriers. The laptops and iPads are over priced and over hyped.

You may consider the products over priced and over hyped, but I like that they have built the long term stability of the company into the price of the product. I also appreciate that warranty work is usually easy to get and they are sometimes generous with it. There are some trade offs for the price.

GPU resources at that resolution would be prohibitive to battery life and heat. It can't happen until the processing power is ready. At Retina resolution (same as iPad 3), you are looking at 3 to 4 times the number of pixels as the iPhone 5. Something would have to give. The trade off is going to be thin and light for lower resolution.